It is well known that many wounds and surgical incisions are closed using surgical sutures of some sort. Sutures are also commonly used in many other surgical applications, such as to repair damaged or severed muscles, vessels, tissue etc. Typically, the suture is attached at one end to a needle, and the needle is drawn through the tissue to form one or more loops holding the tissue together, and subsequently tied off so that the tissue will remain drawn together. It is also known to incorporate barbs into a monofilament suture in an effort to prevent slippage of the suture within the tissue, an example of which is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,931,855. U.S. Pat. No. 5,342,376 also describes various embodiments for a barbed tissue connector, one of which is somewhat triangular in overall shape, including the outer periphery of the barbs, rather than having a triangular primary cross-section as will be described further below in relation to the present invention.
Holding strength and tensile strength are primary concerns with any suture, and particularly when barbs are formed in a suture. Since barbed sutures are typically formed by making cuts or slits in the suture using a blade of some type, the slits act as stress concentration points. In applications where a significant load is placed on the suture, i.e., orthopedic applications, a given barb may fail, or begin peeling away from the suture shaft. Once this occurs, due to the fibrous nature of the suture material the barb may be stripped off the suture shaft along a significant length of the suture causing catastrophic failure. Thus, it would be desirable to provide a new and improved monofilament barbed suture having superior holding strength to known barbed monofilament sutures.